Getting Started with the Management Service User Interface

April 9, 2019

Contributed by:
C

To begin configuring, managing, and monitoring the appliance, the Management Service, and the virtual instances, you need to connect to the Management Service user interface by using a browser, and then provision the virtual instances on the appliance.

You can connect to the Management Service user interface by using one of the following supported browsers:

Internet Explorer

Google Chrome

Apple Safari

Mozilla Firefox

Logging on to the Management Service User Interface

To log on to the Management Service user interface

In your Web browser address field, type one of the following:

http://Management Service IP Address

or

https://Management Service IP Address

On the Login page, in User Name and Password, type the user name and password of the Management Service. The default user name and password are nsroot and nsroot. However, Citrix recommends that you change the password after initial configuration. For information about changing the nsroot password, see Changing the Password of the Default User Account.

Click Show Options, and then do the following:

In the Start in list, select the page that must be displayed immediately after you log on to the user interface. The available options are Home, Monitoring, Configuration, Documentation, and Downloads. For example, if you want the Management Service to display the Configuration page when you log on, select Configuration in the Start in list.

In Timeout, type the length of time (in minutes, hours, or days) after which you want the session to expire. The minimum timeout value is 15 minutes.

The Start in and Timeout settings persist across sessions. Their default values are restored only after you clear the cache.

Click Login to log on to the Management Service user interface.

Initial Setup Wizard

You can use the Setup Wizard to complete all the first time configurations in a single flow.

You can use the wizard to configure network configuration details and system settings, change the default administrative password, and manage and update licenses.

You can also use this wizard to modify the network configuration details that you specified for the SDX appliance during initial configuration.

To access the wizard, navigate to Configuration > System and, under Set Up Appliance, click Setup Wizard.

On the Platform Configuration page, you can configure network configuration details, system settings, and change the default administrative password.

Under System Settings, you can specify that the Management Service and a Citrix ADC instance should communicate with each other only over a secure channel. You can also restrict access to the Management Service user interface. Clients can log on the Management Service user interface only by using https.

You can modify the time zone of the Management Service and the XenServer server. The default time zone is UTC. You can change the Administrative password by selecting the Change Password check box and typing the new password.

Under Manage Licenses you can manage and allocate licenses. You can use your hardware serial number (HSN) or your license activation code (LAC) to allocate your licenses. Alternatively, if a license is already present on your local computer, you can upload it to the appliance.

Select the licenses on the appliance and click Done to complete the initial configuration.

Provisioning Instances on an SDX Appliance

You can provision one or more Citrix ADC or third-party instances on the SDX appliance by using the Management Service. The number of instances that you can install depends on the license you have purchased. If the number of instances added is equal to the number specified in the license, the Management Service does not allow provisioning more instances.

Console Access

You can access the console of Citrix ADC instances, the Management Service, XenServer, and third party VMs from the Management Service interface. This is particularly helpful in debugging and troubleshooting the instances hosted on the SDX appliance.

To access the console of VMs, navigate to the instance listing, select the VM from the list, and under Action drop down menu, click Console Access.

To access the console of Management Service or XenServer, navigate to Configuration > System, and under Console Access, click Management Service or XenServer link.

Note: Console access is not supported by the Internet Explorer browser. Citrix recommends using the console access feature through Management Service HTTPS sessions only.

Management Service Statistics

The dashboard now includes Management Service Statistics for monitoring use of memory, CPU, and disk resources by the Management Service on SDX appliance.

Single Sign-On to the Management Service and the Citrix ADC instances

Logging on to the Management Service gives you direct access to the Citrix ADC instances that are provisioned on the appliance, if the instances are running release 10 build 53 and later. If you log on to the Management Service by using your user credentials, you do not have to provide the user credentials again for logging on to an instance. By default, the Timeout value is set to 30 minutes and the configuration tab is opened in a new browser window.

Managing the Home Page

The Management Service Home page provides you with a high-level view of the performance of the SDX appliance and the instances provisioned on your appliance. SDX appliance and instance information is displayed in gadgets that you can add and remove depending on your requirement.

The following gadgets are available on the Home page by default.

System Resources

Displays the total number of CPU cores, total number of SSL chips, number of free SSL chips, total memory, and free memory on the appliance.

System CPU

Memory Usage (%)

Displays the percentage of CPU and memory utilization of the appliance in graphical format.

System
WAN/LAN Throughput (Mbps)

Displays the total throughput of the SDX appliance for incoming and outgoing traffic in a graph that is plotted in real time and updated at regular intervals.

Citrix ADC instances

Displays the properties of the Citrix ADC instances. The properties displayed are Name, VM State, Instance State, IP Address, Rx (Mbps), Tx (Mbps), HTTP Req/s, and CPU Usage (%) and Memory Usage (%).
Note: On first log on, the
Home page does not display any data related to the
Citrix ADC instances because you have not provisioned any instances on your appliance.

Health Monitoring Events

Displays the last 25 events, with their severity, message, and the date and time that the event occurred.

You can do the following on the Home page:

View and hide Citrix ADC instance details

You can view and hide the details of a particular
Citrix ADC instance by clicking the name of the instance in the
Name column.
You can also click Expand All to expand all the instance nodes and Collapse All to collapse all the instance nodes.

Add and remove gadgets

You can also add gadgets to view additional system information.

To add these gadgets, click the arrow (<<) button at the top right corner of the Home page, enter keywords in the search box, and then click Go. The allowed characters are: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, ^, $, *, and _. Click Go without typing any characters in the search box to display all the gadgets that are available. After the gadget is displayed, click Add to dashboard.

The Licenses gadget displays details about the SDX hardware platform, the maximum number of instances supported on the platform, the maximum supported throughput in Mbps, and the available throughput in Mbps.

If you remove a gadget that is available on the Home page by default, you can add them back to the Home page by performing a search for the gadget, as described earlier.

Ports

The following ports must be open on the SDX appliance for it to function properly.

Type

Port

Details

TCP

80

Used for incoming HTTP (GUI and NITRO) requests. One of the primary interfaces to access the SDX Management Service interface.

TCP

443

Used for incoming secured HTTP (GUI and NITRO) requests. One of the primary interfaces to access the the SDX Management Service interface.

TCP

22

Used for SSH and SCP access to the SDX Management Service interface.

UDP

162

The SDX Management Service interface listens for SNMP traps from the Citrix ADC instances hosted on the SDX appliance.

UDP

161

The SDX Management Service interface listens for SNMP walks/get requests.

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THIS SERVICE MAY CONTAIN TRANSLATIONS POWERED BY GOOGLE. GOOGLE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATED TO THE TRANSLATIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

THIS SERVICE MAY CONTAIN TRANSLATIONS POWERED BY GOOGLE. GOOGLE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATED TO THE TRANSLATIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.